Denial of Service a Big WLAN Issue

A denial of service (DoS) attack is an assault that can cripple or disable a WLAN. The possibility of such an attack occurring is something that all companies deploying WLANs should consider. Wireless networks are extremely vulnerable to DoS attacks. It can slow the network to crawling speeds or actually force it to quit working. For a company that’s dependent on a WLAN to experience delays can be costly — think of applications such as wireless security cameras, inventory systems, and point of sale terminals. Types of Wireless DoS Attacks One form of DoS attack is the “brute force” method. This can come in one of two forms: either a huge flood of packets that uses up all of the network’s resources and forces it to shut down, or a very strong radio signal that totally dominates the airwaves and renders access points and radio cards useless. A hacker can perform a packet-based brute force DoS attack by using other computers on the network to send the useless packets to the server. This adds significant overhead on the network and takes away useable bandwidth from legitimate users. Full Story

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